Alabama bill to ban texting while driving will return to Legislature

Alabama State Rep. Jim McClendon has filed a bill that would ban texting while driving and impose fines for violations of the law. It would make texting while driving a primary offense, so a law enforcement officer could stop someone and issue a citation for that reason alone. (The Associated Press file)

MONTGOMERY -- A Birmingham-area legislator is hoping to make Alabama the 36th state to ban texting while driving.

Rep. Jim McClendon, R-Springville, filed a bill that would ban driving on a public road or highway statewide while manually using a cellphone or other wireless device to write, send or read text messages, electronic mail or other text-based communications.

McClendon said the proposed law, if passed in the Legislature's 2012 regular session, ''absolutely will save lives." The session starts Feb. 7.

''There's no question that texting is as dangerous as drunk driving. The data show it," McClendon said. ''Your eyes come off the road. Your hands come off the wheel. Your mind comes off the job."

Thirty-five states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territory of Guam already ban text messaging for all drivers, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently reported that an estimated 3,092 people died nationwide in 2010 in ''distraction-affected" crashes. Driver distractions included texting, dialing a cellphone and a person or event outside the vehicle, for instance.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration last year banned text messaging by anyone while driving a commercial truck or bus for interstate commerce.

Research commissioned by the agency showed that drivers of commercial vehicles were 23 times more likely to be involved in a "safety-critical event" if they were texting while driving than if they were not. A safety-critical event included a crash, a close call requiring an evasive maneuver or an unintentional swerve outside the driving lane, for instance.

McClendon's plan to ban texting while driving would fine drivers $25 for a first violation, $50 for a second and $75 for a third or subsequent violation. It would make texting while driving a primary offense, so a law enforcement officer could stop someone and issue a citation for that reason alone.

McClendon has filed similar bills since 2009, and earlier efforts have passed in the state House of Representatives only to die in the Senate.

But Sen. Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills, said he plans to sponsor a Senate version of McClendon's bill in the 2012 regular session. He said approval of his or McClendon's bill would be one of his top priorities.

Waggoner's priorities matter: He is the majority leader of the Senate's 22 Republicans and recently became chairman of the Senate's agenda-setting Rules Committee.

''I think that bill will be given a higher priority in the Senate than it has in the past," Waggoner said, adding that he thinks it has a good chance of becoming law in 2012. ''The stock has gone up on that bill."

Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, said he would fight any plan to let law officers stop people solely for texting while driving.

He questioned how an officer, without stopping a driver and checking his or her electronic device, could tell whether someone was texting rather than entering a phone number, which would not be banned by McClendon's bill.

Singleton said he knows texting while driving is dangerous, but said it would be hypocritical to pass a bill that would stop drivers from texting but not stop them from other distracting uses of electronic devices, such as talking on a cellphone.

''If we're going to stop it, let's stop everything," Singleton said.

A new Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rule, which takes effect Jan. 3, will ban interstate truck and bus drivers from using hand-held cellphones while operating their vehicles.

And the National Transportation Safety Board, a non-regulatory federal agency, recently called for all states to ban the ''non-emergency use of portable electronic devices" by all drivers, except for devices ''designed to support the driving task."

But McClendon said expanding his bill to include a ban on all use of a cellphone while driving would expand opposition to it. ''It's like one step at a time in Alabama," McClendon said. ''Banning cellphone use would be even more difficult."

Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, voted against the texting-while-driving ban that McClendon proposed this past spring. He said he feared some police officers would abuse the law and use it to intimidate and harass blacks.

But Holmes said he will support McClendon's bill this time around. ''I've had a change of heart," Holmes said. ''There have been so many accidents that have been reported due to people texting while they're driving. I think it would be a wise thing for us to ban it statewide."

Some Alabama cities already have passed local bans on texting while driving, but many of those bans treat it as a secondary offense: An officer can give a ticket for texting only if he or she stopped a driver for another offense, such as speeding.

Dee Fine, founder of Alabamians Against Distracted Driving, a nonprofit group based in Birmingham, said approval of the texting-while-driving ban backed by McClendon and Waggoner would save lives.

''Until we get all cellphone usage out of the car, it won't be perfect, but I want to applaud them for taking a courageous step," said Fine, who years ago organized Alabama's chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.